A financial crisis in schools, rescue fatigue in Congress

Where is the lifeline for the nation's public schools as state funding shortfalls like Oregon's threaten the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers?

Over the past 18 months the federal government has hurled hundreds of billions of dollars at Wall Street bankers, Main Street businesses and virtually every public or private program that might protect or create jobs. But now that it's public education -- and teachers -- feeling the brunt of the recession, there's a new message from Washington:

You're on your own.

As members of Congress return to work this week from their Memorial Day break, they must look with fresh eyes at legislation that would send $23 billion to the states to prevent mass teacher layoffs, early school closures and other deep budget cuts throughout the nation's school systems. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, quietly pulled back a school-rescue amendment just before lawmakers left town May 28. As of this writing, there's still not majority support in the House or Senate for schools that soon will be stretched to the breaking point.

We understand the arguments against further bursts of federal spending, especially "emergency" spending such as the education funding that would be exempt from President Obama's anti-deficit pay-as-you-go rules. Lawmakers are right to be worried about the exploding deficit. But public education is the wrong place to draw the line; teachers are the wrong people to sacrifice in the name of belt tightening.

It makes little sense as a matter of economics or education to hand a pink slip to as many as one out of every 15 teachers in the United States. That will weaken public schools, drive up class sizes, set back long-overdue reforms, send hundreds of thousands of teachers to the unemployment lines and turn a generation of potential teachers against careers in education.

Some of the worst school-funding crises are in California, Texas and Florida, where districts already have slashed school days and laid off teachers. Meanwhile, Oregon's congressional delegation needs to fully understand what our state and its schools are up against. A plunging revenue forecast has blown a $577 million hole in the Oregon budget; schools are in line for a cut of up to $250 million for next year. There's little money in state reserves, and local districts are running out of cash and time as one school year ends and a new budget must be approved in less than a month. Without federal aid, the Oregon cuts will be swift and deep -- and look a lot like 2003, when the state was forced to whack days from its school year.

Yes, time and events have proven right those of us who warned Oregon legislators and school districts to save rather than spend $200 million in extra school funding approved by the Legislature. Gov. Ted Kulongoski vetoed the $200 million allocation, but lawmakers overrode the governor and sent it on to school districts, some of which used it to grant pay raises to teachers. That $200 million would sure come in handy now.

And yes, federal aid would only be a financial Band-Aid, a temporary reprieve for public education. Oregon and other states ultimately must confront deep structural deficits, find ways to reduce spending on retirement and healthcare benefits and begin to operate schools more efficiently.

But throughout this deep recession Congress has properly chosen to build financial bridges to help many public and private services get safely through hard times -- even those that had not been as prudent as they should have been about putting money in reserve. The nation's public schools -- and hundreds of thousands of classroom teachers -- deserve no less.